June 14, 2017

Orange County

Orange County supervisors rejected a sweeping overhaul of the county’s voting system on Tuesday, June 13, despite a report from Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley saying more than $10 million would be saved in replacing antiquated voting machines.

If the deficits continue and the city has to draw from rainy day funds, it could be pushed to the brink of bankruptcy a few years from now, like it was in 2011. City staff say they’re trying to find ways to save costs and grow revenues so they don’t have to draw from the reserves.

The signature-gathering effort to recall Newman, as the president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. candidly admitted in an op-ed for the Orange County Register, is really about “political retaliation,” not a legislative reversal.

California

The Editorial Board of The OC Register has called onto Sacramento to close a loophole within the California Public Records Act, which allows government employees and officials to deny access to public records.

The coalition between Governor Jerry Brown, farmers, and water wholesalers has approached its final days of reaching an agreement on the Delta Tunnels, which are set to redistribute water in the Delta region. In detail, both opposing and proposing teams state their concerns and mistrusts with the project.

The budget adds $1.8 billion to the state's rainy day fund, expands access to California's Earned Income Tax Credit and boosts funding for schools and infrastructure repairs, according to the governor's office.